“Hubert Thompson, released from prison in 2012 after DNA tests showed that he was wrongfully imprisoned for more than four years for a sexual assault that he did not commit, testified before the state claims commissioner Thursday in his bid for more than $1 million in compensation from the state.

Thompson, 47, of Hartford, told Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr. that while he was locked up, he was separated from his two sons, missed five funerals of family members, was infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and suffered other illnesses and ailments that were even tougher to manage while held in a prison cell.”

“Superior Court Judge Raymond R. Norko convicted Thompson in 1998 of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault and attempt to commit first-degree sexual assault. Thompson was sentenced to 12 years in prison, which was to run consecutively to an unrelated 10-year federal prison sentence for weapons offenses.

In 2010, Koch filed a petition for DNA testing on the underwear of Thompson’s accuser. The testing showed that the sperm found in the underwear was “from a convicted felon in the Connecticut DNA data base, not Hubert Thompson,” Thompson’s claim states.

On March 12, 2012, the sexual assault conviction was vacated and a new trial was ordered. The charge against Thompson was dismissed on July 19, 2012.

Thompson insisted on his innocence at sentencing, telling the judge, “And I state my case right here and right now, I have not committed this crime,” according to a court transcript.”